Avoid These 5 Mistakes in Link Building

Avoid These 5 Mistakes in Link Building

Search Engine Optimization was never as strict as it is today. Internet marketers peppered their content with several keywords and literally bought traffic by exchanging links with other sites. However, with two major Panda updates, Google has tightened its reign over internet marketers increasing the challenges for them. The search engine has started taking into account the use of keywords and the quality of links very seriously when ranking pages.

If you've noticed a drop in traffic overtime, particularly after the updates, one of the reasons could be a fault in your link building strategy. Here is a list of the common mistakes most internet marketers make and the solutions to it.

1. Do not pay for links, build them

It is an easy way out of the problem and can help you get 1000's of links, but obtaining links by paying for them is not beneficial to your business. It might get you some traffic initially. Your business will be penalized if Google finds out about it. Also, the traffic that you get will not convert because it is not targeted.

Instead, invest time and money on building high quality natural links. You can spend money on creating blogs to promote your site.

2. Posting links at the wrong places

Most marketers promote a business by posting content to places other than their website. Links to the parent website are embedded within the content. The common places include article directories and other websites and blogs that accept guest posts. Marketers choose to post content at blogs that accept content easily.

A strict approval process indicates zero tolerance for poor quality and as such people trust these sites for the information and services they provide. Hence, you should be very selective about where you choose to post content if you're looking to build quality links.

3. Repeated use of exact anchor texts

Aggressive use of exact match anchor texts links within the text is another common link building mistake pointed out by SEO experts. It can hurt your search engine ranking badly and also result in your site being penalized.

A better option is to use semantic keyword anchor text links. Semantic keywords are variations of the main keyword you are ranking for and are an effective solution to the problem of excessive use of exact anchor texts.

4. Getting links from irrelevant sites

The obsession with building links for one's website often compels one to exchange links with any site willing to exchange links in return. When you exchange links with sites not associated with your niche, you are probably trying to hint to Google that you prefer to take the easy way out.

If you are looking to get back links for your site, choose only relevant sites. For example, if you sell items for babies and toddlers, you can link to a website or blog on parenting or childcare, but definitely not a travel blog.

5. Not writing quality content

Business owners concentrate on the different ways in which they can build back links for their website by using rich anchor text links. The reality of building quality links lies less in building them and more in earning them by writing quality content. Your audience will voluntarily click links and share them if the content you create is informative, valuable, accurate and engaging.